Quality of life evaluation in the oral health field : Establishment of national norms and databank construction

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This study aims at forming a basis for the promotion of Quality of life (QOL) studies in the oral health field in Japan. Concerning the achievements of studies in 2005-2007, first of all, the national norms of the General Oral Health Index (GOHAI) as an oral health-related QOL scale were completed and opened to public viewing on the Website. There had been no studies up to that point on the establishment of national norms in oral health-related QOL scales in Japan or other countries. The GOHAI has been extensively studied and has the longest history among oral health-related QOL scales that have been psychometrically analyzed. The establishment of national norms in Japanese, taking the initiative in the world, may also be important in pioneering ecological studies. In studies using general populations in the nation as a control group, established national norms can be used as substitutes, which may facilitate the conducting of and comparisons among studies, and provide results with high external validity.The second achievement during this period involved various surveys and studies performed using the Japanese version of the GOHAI and extensive data collection. For databank construction, we intend to continue to advance work, and also actively evaluate methods of information provision based on previous studies in other fields. The third achievement was the establishment of the Japanese version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP), which, together with the GOHAI, is widely used in the world, and survey data collection. The Japanese version of the GOHAI and that of the OIDP were also compared by their simultaneous use. We consider that an increase in scale choices and the comparison of characteristics among scales may contribute to the development of QOL studies.